term% cat index.txt PLAN9.INI(8) System Manager's Manual PLAN9.INI(8)
NAME
plan9.ini - configuration file for PCs
SYNOPSIS
none
DESCRIPTION
When booting Plan 9 on a PC, the DOS program 9boot(8) first reads a DOS
file containing configuration information from the boot disk. This
file, plan9.ini, looks like a shell script containing lines of the form
name=value
each of which defines a kernel or device parameter.
Blank lines and Carriage Returns (\r) are ignored. # comments are ig‐
nored, but are only recognised if appears at the start of a line.
For devices, the generic format of value is
type=TYPE [port=N] [irq=N] [mem=N] [size=N] [dma=N] [ea=N]
specifying the controller type, the base I/O port of the interface, its
interrupt level, the physical starting address of any mapped memory,
the length in bytes of that memory, the DMA channel, and for Ethernets
an override of the physical network address. Not all elements are rel‐
evant to all devices; the relevant values and their defaults are de‐
fined below in the description of each device.
The file is used by the kernel to configure the hardware available.
The information it contains is also passed to the boot process, and
subsequently other programs, as environment variables (see boot(8)).
However, values whose names begin with an asterisk * are used by the
kernel and are not converted into environment variables.
The following sections describe how variables are used.
ETHERNET
etherX=value
This defines an Ethernet interface. X, a unique monotonically increas‐
ing number beginning at 0, identifies an Ethernet card to be probed at
system boot. Probing stops when a card is found or there is no line
for etherX+1. After probing as directed by the etherX lines, any re‐
maining Ethernet cards that can be automatically detected are added.
Almost all cards can be automatically detected. For debugging pur‐
poses, automatic probing can be disabled by specifying the line
*noetherprobe=.
Some cards are software configurable and do not require all options.
Unspecified options default to the factory defaults.
Known TYPEs are
igbe The Intel 8254X Gigabit Ethernet controllers, as found on the
Intel PRO/1000 adapters for copper (not fiber). Completely con‐
figurable.
igbepcie
The Intel 8256[36], 8257[12], and 82573[ev] Gigabit Ethernet
PCI-Express controllers. Completely configurable.
rtl8169
The Realtek 8169 Gigabit Ethernet controller. Completely con‐
figurable.
ga620 Netgear GA620 and GA620T Gigabit Ethernet cards, and other cards
using the Alteon Acenic chip such as the Alteon Acenic fiber and
copper cards, the DEC DEGPA-SA and the SGI Acenic. Completely
configurable.
dp83820
National Semiconductor DP83820-based Gigabit Ethernet adapters,
notably the D-Link DGE-500T. Completely configurable.
vgbe The VIA Velocity Gigabit Ethernet controller. Known to drive
the VIA8237 (ABIT AV8), but at 100Mb/s full-duplex only.
m10g The Myricom 10-Gigabit Ethernet 10G-PCIE-8A controller. Com‐
pletely configurable. Can't boot through these due to enormous
firmware loads.
i82598 The Intel 8259[89] 10-Gigabit Ethernet PCI-Express controllers.
Completely configurable.
i82557 Cards using the Intel 8255[789] Fast Ethernet PCI Bus LAN Con‐
troller such as the Intel EtherExpress PRO/100B. Completely
configurable, no options need be given. If you need to force
the media, specify one of the options (no value) 10BASE-T,
10BASE-2, 10BASE-5, 100BASE-TX, 10BASE-TFD, 100BASE-TXFD,
100BASE-T4, 100BASE-FX, or 100BASE-FXFD. Completely config‐
urable.
2114x Cards using the Digital Equipment (now Intel) 2114x PCI Fast
Ethernet Adapter Controller, for example the Netgear FA310.
Completely configurable, no options need be given. Media can be
specified the same was as for the i82557. Some cards using the
PNIC and PNIC2 near-clone chips may also work.
83815 National Semiconductor DP83815-based adapters, notably the Net‐
gear FA311, Netgear FA312, and various SiS built-in controllers
such as the SiS900. On the SiS controllers, the Ethernet ad‐
dress is not detected properly; specify it with an ea= attri‐
bute. Completely configurable.
rtl8139
The Realtek 8139 Fast Ethernet controller. Completely config‐
urable.
vt6102 The VIA VT6102 Fast Ethernet Controller (Rhine II).
smc91cxx
SMC 91cXX chip-based PCMCIA adapters, notably the SMC EtherEZ
card.
elnk3 The 3COM Etherlink III series of cards including the 5x9, 59x,
and 905 and 905B. Completely configurable, no options need be
given. The media may be specified by setting media= to the
value 10BaseT, 10Base2, 100BaseTX, 100BaseFX, aui, and mii. If
you need to force full duplex, because for example the Ethernet
switch does not negotiate correctly, just name the word (no
value) fullduplex or 100BASE-TXFD. Similarly, to force 100Mbit
operation, specify force100. Port 0x110 is used for the little
ISA configuration dance.
3c589 The 3COM 3C589 series PCMCIA cards, including the 3C562 and the
589E. There is no support for the modem on the 3C562. Com‐
pletely configurable, no options need be given. Defaults are
port=0x240 irq=10
The media may be specified as media=10BaseT or media=10Base2.
ec2t The Linksys Combo PCMCIA EthernetCard (EC2T), EtherFast 10/100
PCMCIA cards (PCMPC100) and integrated controllers (PCM100), the
Netgear FA410TX 10/100 PCMCIA card and the Accton EtherPair-PCM‐
CIA (EN2216). Completely configurable, no options need be
given. Defaults are
port=0x300 irq=9
These cards are NE2000 clones. Other NE2000 compatible PCMCIA
cards may be tried with the option
id=string
where string is a unique identifier string contained in the at‐
tribute memory of the card (see pcmcia(8)); unlike most options
in plan9.ini, this string is case-sensitive. The option dum‐
myrr=[01] can be used to turn off (0) or on (1) a dummy remote
read in the driver in such cases, depending on how NE2000 com‐
patible they are.
ne2000 Not software configurable iff ISA; PCI clones or supersets are
software configurable; includes the Realtek 8029 clone used by
Parallels. 16-bit card. Defaults are
port=0x300 irq=2 mem=0x04000 size=0x4000
The option (no value) nodummyrr is needed on some (near) clones
to turn off a dummy remote read in the driver.
amd79c970
The AMD PCnet PCI Ethernet Adapter (AM79C970). (This is the
Ethernet adapter used by VMware.) Completely configurable, no
options need be given.
wd8003 Includes WD8013 and SMC Elite and Elite Ultra cards. There are
varying degrees of software configurability. Cards may be in ei‐
ther 8-bit or 16-bit slots. Defaults are
port=0x280 irq=3 mem=0xD0000 size=0x2000
BUG: On many machines only the 16 bit card works.
bcm Broadcom BCM57xx Gigabit Ethernet controllers. Completely con‐
figurable, no options need be given.
yuk Marvell 88e8057 Yukon2 Gigabit Ethernet controller. Completely
configurable, no options need be given.
virtio Virtual Ethernet interface provided by QEMU/KVM and VirtualBox.
No options need be given. The MAC address can be changed with
the ea= option.
sink A /dev/null for Ethernet packets — the interface discards sent
packets and never receives any. This is used to provide a test
bed for some experimental Ethernet bridging software.
wavelan
Lucent Wavelan (Orinoco) IEEE 802.11b and compatible PCMCIA
cards. Compatible cards include the Dell TrueMobile 1150 and
the Linksys Instant Wireless Network PC Card. Port and IRQ de‐
faults are 0x180 and 3 respectively.
These cards take a number of unique options to aid in identify‐
ing the card correctly on the 802.11b network. The network may
be ad hoc or managed (i.e. use an access point):
mode=[adhoc, managed]
and defaults to managed. The 802.11b network to attach to (man‐
aged mode) or identify as (ad hoc mode), is specified by
essid=string
and defaults to a null string. The card station name is given
by
station=string
and defaults to Plan 9 STA. The channel to use is given by
channel=number
where number lies in the range 1 to 16 inclusive; the channel is
normally negotiated automatically.
If the card is capable of encryption, the following options may
be used:
crypt=[off, on]
and defaults to on.
keyN=string
sets the encryption key N (where N is in the range 1 to 4 inclu‐
sive) to string; this will also set the transmit key to N (see
below). There are two formats for string which depend on the
length of the string. If it is exactly 5 or 13 characters long
it is assumed to be an alphanumeric key; if it is exactly 10 or
26 characters long the key is assumed to be in hex format (with‐
out a leading 0x). The lengths are checked, as is the format of
a hex key.
txkey=number
sets the transmit key to use to be number in the range 1 to 4
inclusive. If it is desired to exclude or include unencrypted
packets
clear=[off, on]
configures reception and defaults to inclusion.
The defaults are intended to match the common case of a managed
network with encryption and a typical entry would only require,
for example
essid=left-armpit key1=afish key2=calledraawaru
if the port and IRQ defaults are used. These options may be set
after boot by writing to the device's ctl file using a space as
the separator between option and value, e.g.
echo 'key2 1d8f65c9a52d83c8e4b43f94af' >/net/ether0/0/ctl
Card-specific power management may be enabled/disabled by
pm=[on, off]
wavelanpci
PCI Ethernet adapters that use the same Wavelan programming in‐
terface. Currently the only tested cards are those based on the
Intersil Prism 2.5 chipset.
iwl Intel Wireless WiFi Link mini PCI-Express adapters require
firmware from http://firmware.openbsd.org/firmware/*/iwn-
firmware*.tgz to be present on attach in /lib/firmware or /boot.
To select the access point, the essid= and bssid= parameters can
be specified at boot or set during runtime like:
echo essid left-armpit >/net/ether1/clone
If both essid= and bssid= are specified, both must match. Scan
results appear in the ifstats file and can be read out like:
cat /net/ether1/ifstats
Ad-hoc mode or WEP encryption is currently not supported. To
enable WPA/WPA2 encryption, see wpa(8) for details.
rt2860 Ralink Technology PCI/PCI-Express wireless adapters require
firmware from http://firmware.openbsd.org/firmware/*/ral-
firmware*.tgz to be present on attach in /lib/firmware or /boot.
See iwl section above for configuration details.
DISKS, TAPES
(S)ATA controllers are autodetected.
*nodma=
disables dma on ata devices.
*sdXXdma=on
explicitly enables dma on a specific ata device.
scsiX=value
This defines a SCSI interface which cannot be automatically detected by
the kernel.
Known TYPEs are
aha1542
Adaptec 154x series of controllers (and clones). Almost com‐
pletely configurable, only the
port=0x300
option need be given.
NCR/Symbios/LSI-Logic 53c8xx-based adapters and Mylex MultiMaster (Bus‐
logic BT-*) adapters are automatically detected and need no entries.
By default, the NCR 53c8xx driver searches for up to 32 controllers.
This can be changed by setting the variable *maxsd53c8xx.
By default the Mylex driver resets SCSI cards by using both the hard
reset and SCSI bus reset flags in the driver interface. If a variable
*noscsireset is defined, the SCSI bus reset flag is omitted.
aoeif=list
This specifies a space-separated list of Ethernet interfaces to be
bound at boot to the ATA-over-Ethernet driver, aoe(3). For example,
Only interfaces on this list will initially be accessible via AoE.
aoedev=e!#æ/aoe/shelf.slot
This specifies an ATA-over-Ethernet device accessible via the inter‐
faces named in aoeif on AoE shelf and slot to use as a root device for
bootstrapping.
AUDIO
audioX=value
This defines a sound interface. PCI based audio devices such as Intel
HD audio or AC97 are autodetected and do not require any settings.
Known types are
hda Intel HD audio.
ac97 AC97 based card.
sb16 Sound Blaster 16.
ess1688
A Sound Blaster clone.
The DMA channel may be any of 5, 6, or 7. The defaults are
port=0x220 irq=7 dma=5
UARTS
Plan 9 automatically configures COM1 and COM2, if found, as eia0 (port
0x3F8, IRQ4) and eia1 (port 0x2F8, IRQ3) respectively. These devices
can be disabled by adding a line:
eiaX=disabled
This is typically done in order to reuse the IRQ for another device.
Additional i8250 (ISA) uarts (uart2 to uart5) can be configured using:
uartX=type=isa port=port irq=irq
Perle PCI-Fast4, PCI-Fast8, and PCI-Fast16 controllers are automati‐
cally detected and need no configuration lines.
The line serial=type=com can be used to specify settings for a PCMCIA
modem.
mouseport=value
This specifies where the mouse is attached. Value can be
ps2 the PS2 mouse/keyboard port. The BIOS setup procedure should be
used to configure the machine appropriately.
ps2intellimouse
an Intellimouse on the PS2 port.
0 for COM1
1 for COM2
modemport=value
Picks the UART line to call out on. This is used when connecting to a
file server over an async line. Value is the number of the port.
console=value params
This is used to specify the console device. The default value is cga;
a number 0 or 1 specifies COM1 or COM2 respectively. A serial console
is initially configured with the uart(3) configuration string b9600 l8
pn s1, specifying 9600 baud, 8 bit bytes, no parity, and one stop bit.
If params is given, it will be used to further configure the uart. No‐
tice that there is no = sign in the params syntax. For example,
console=0 b19200 po
would use COM1 at 19,200 baud with odd parity.
PC CARD
pccard0=disabled
Disable probing for and automatic configuration of PC card controllers.
pcmciaX=type=XXX irq=value
If the default IRQ for the PCMCIA is correct, this entry can be omit‐
ted. The value of type is ignored.
pcmcia0=disabled
Disable probing for and automatic configuration of PCMCIA controllers.
BOOTING
bootfile=value
This is used to direct the actions of 9boot(8) by naming the file from
which to load the kernel in the current BIOS boot device.
bootargs=value
The value of this variable is passed to boot(8) by the kernel as the
name of the root file system to automatically mount and boot into. It
is typically used to specify additional arguments to pass to cwfs(4) or
ipconfig(8). For example, if the system is to run from a local cwfs(4)
partition, the definition might read bootargs=local!/dev/sdC0/fscache.
See boot(8) for more.
nobootprompt=value
Suppress the prompt and use value as the answer instead.
user=value
Suppress the prompt and use value as the answer instead.
service=value
Changes the systems default role. Possible settings for value are cpu
and terminal.
debugfactotum=
Causes boot(8) to start factotum with the -p option, so that it can be
debugged.
cfs=value
This gives the name of the file holding the disk partition for the
cache file system, cfs(4). Extending the bootargs example, one would
write cfs=#S/sdC0/cache.
bootdisk=value
This deprecated variable was used to specify the disk used by the cache
file system and other disk-resident services. It is superseded by
bootargs and cfs.
fs=address
auth=address
secstore=address
These specify the network address (IP or domain name) of the file, au‐
thentication and secstore server to use when mounting a network-pro‐
vided root file system. When not specified, then these settings are
determined via DHCP. When secstore is not specified, then the authen‐
tication server is used.
PROCESSOR
*e820=type 0xstart 0xend ...
This variable is automatically generated by the boot loader (see
9boot(8)) by doing a BIOS E820 memory scan while still in realmode and
passed to the kernel. The format is a unordered list of decimal region
type and hexadecimal 64-bit start and end addresses of the area.
*maxmem=value
This defines the maximum physical address that the system will scan
when sizing memory. By default the PC operating system will scan up to
3.75 gigabytes (0xF0000000, the base of kernel virtual address space),
but setting *maxmem will limit the scan. *maxmem must be less than
3.75 gigabytes. This variable is not consulted if using the E820 mem‐
ory map.
*kernelpercent=value
This defines what percentage of available memory is reserved for the
kernel allocation pool. The remainder is left for user processes. The
default value is 30 on CPU servers, 60 on terminals with less than 16MB
of memory, and 40 on terminals with memories of 16MB or more. Termi‐
nals use more kernel memory because draw(3) maintains its graphic im‐
ages in kernel memory. This deprecated option is rarely necessary in
newer kernels.
*imagemaxmb=value
This limits the maximum amount of memory (in megabytes) the graphics
image memory pool can grow. The default is unlimited for terminals and
cpu servers.
*nomce=value
If machine check exceptions are supported by the processor, then they
are enabled by default. Setting this variable to 1 causes them to be
disabled even when available.
*nomp=
A multiprocessor machine will enable all processors by default. Set‐
ting *nomp restricts the kernel to starting only one processor and us‐
ing the traditional interrupt controller.
*ncpu=value
Setting *ncpu restricts the kernel to starting at most value proces‐
sors.
*apicdebug=
Prints a summary of the multiprocessor APIC interrupt configuration.
*nomsi=
Disables message signaled interrupts.
*notsc=
Disables the use of the per processor timestamp counter registers as
high resolution clock.
*pcimaxbno=value
This puts a limit on the maximum bus number probed on a PCI bus (de‐
fault 7). For example, a value of 1 should suffice on a 'standard'
motherboard with an AGP slot. This, and *pcimaxdno below are rarely
used and only on troublesome or suspect hardware.
*pcimaxdno=value
This puts a limit on the maximum device number probed on a PCI bus (de‐
fault 31).
*nopcirouting=
Disable pci routing during boot. May solve interrupt routing problems
on certain machines.
*pcihinv=
Prints a summary of the detected PCI busses and devices.
*nodumpstack=
Disable printing a stack dump on panic. Useful if there is only a lim‐
ited cga screen available, otherwise the textual information about the
panic may scroll off.
ioexclude=value
Specifies a list of ranges of I/O ports to exclude from use by drivers.
Ranges are inclusive on both ends and separated by commas. For exam‐
ple:
ioexclude=0x330-0x337,0x430-0x43F
umbexclude=value
Specifies a list of ranges of UMB to exclude from use by drivers.
Ranges are inclusive on both ends and separated by commas. For exam‐
ple:
umbexclude=0xD1800-0xD3FFF
*acpi=value
The presence of this option enables ACPI and the export of the
#P/acpitbls file in arch(3) device. In multiprocessor mode, the kernel
will use the ACPI tables to configure APIC interrupts unless a value of
0 is specified.
apm0=
This enables the ``advanced power management'' interface as described
in apm(3) and apm(8). The main feature of the interface is the ability
to watch battery life (see stats(8)). It is not on by default because
it causes problems on some laptops.
usbwait=value
This changes the sleep time from the default 2 to value in cases of USB
devices taking a long time to come online.
nousbhname=
When defined, nusbrc(8) will use the dynamically assigned usb device
address to name usb devices instead of the device unique name.
VIDEO
monitor=value
vgasize=value
These are used not by the kernel but by termrc (see cpurc(8)) when
starting vga(8). If value is set to ask then the user is prompted for
a choice on boot.
*bootscreen=value
This is used by the kernel to attach a pre-initialized linear frame‐
buffer that was setup by the bootloader or firmware. The value has
four space separated fields: the resolution and bitdepth of the screen,
the color channel descriptor, the physical address of the framebuffer
and a optional aperture size.
*bootscreen=800x600x32 x8r8g8b8 0x80000000 0x001d4c00
*dpms=value
This is used to specify the screen blanking behavior of the MGA4xx
video driver. Values are standby, suspend, and off. The first two
specify differing levels of power saving; the third turns the monitor
off completely.
NVRAM
nvram=file
nvrlen=length
nvroff=offset
This is used to specify an nvram device and optionally the length of
the ram and read/write offset to use. These values are consulted by
readnvram (see authsrv(2)). The most common use of the nvram is to
hold a secstore(1) password for use by factotum(4).
nvr=value
This is used by the WORM file server kernel to locate a file holding
information to configure the file system. The file cannot live on a
SCSI disk. The default is fd!0!plan9.nvr (sic), unless bootfile is
set, in which case it is plan9.nvr on the same disk as bootfile. The
syntax is either fd!unit!name or hd!unit!name where unit is the numeric
unit id. This variant syntax is a vestige of the file server kernel's
origins.
EXAMPLES
A representative plan9.ini:
% cat /n/9fat:/plan9.ini
ether0=type=3C509
mouseport=ps2
modemport=1
serial0=type=generic port=0x3E8 irq=5
monitor=445x
vgasize=1600x1200x8
bootfile=/386/9pcf
%
SEE ALSO
9boot(8), booting(8), boot(8)
BUGS
Being able to set the console device to other than a display is
marginally useful on file servers; MS-DOS and the programs which run
under it are so tightly bound to the display that it is necessary to
have a display if any setup or reconfiguration programs need to be run.
Also, the delay before any messages appear at boot time is disconcert‐
ing, as any error messages from the BIOS are lost.
The declaration of a kernel parameter which is a prefix of previously
declared parameters will delete the previous ones. If this is not de‐
sired, parameters should be given in shortest to longest order.
PLAN9.INI(8)